Ah, those three little words that we hear so infrequently but that mean so much ...

Robust internal debate.

Reading the coverage of yesterday's Avandia adcomm, you'd think the FDA professsional staff never disagreed with each other and lived in perfect regulatory harmony. Nothing could be further from the truth. Also, statements like "Avandia has split the agency in two" is just laughable -- considering the issue exists in one division of one center. But, hey, hyperbole sells.

Robust internal debate. It's healthy and it's the rule rather than the exception -- media reports to the contrary.

Kudos to Peggy Hamburg who, once again, reminds everyone that the science is the only thing that counts.

And science, as those who know understand, is plenty contentious enough.